Marhaban Road Show

The month of Syawal has long passed. But the aura is still there. The Eid of Adha is coming and I am not sure whether the wave of Marhaban can beat the Marhaban road show during the Shawal.

It is no ordinary Marhaban, compared to what I have experienced before. I believe that it is only exist here in Johor as my friends from all over the country who are currently teaching in this state said that they have never experience such Marhaban Road Show before. The Marhaban that I used to hear was just during the Birth Day of Prophet Muhammad SAW (peace and prayer upon him), and just a few other occasions. But, Johorean is the extreme case in this sense. huhuhu

An old yet evergreen song, is making some sense to me now.. huhuhu

Actually the Marhaban started even before the Ramadhan. It was when I was invited to a dinner by a teacher of my school, a few days before Ramadhan. We did some tahlil and Yaseen recitation and end up with the Marhaban (Selawat- the prayer upon the Prophet Muhammad SAW). I felt nothing strange with that. However, after we came back from the Eid holiday, everything changed. About few days in every week, we were invited to the open houses which means free food to me. Despite of having the finger licking food, we were asked to do the Marhaban first.

The strange thing was that it happened almost every night, in which we needed to go in a group to a few houses and recited the Marhaban in every house that we approached. The maximum would be about 7 houses per night. They would organise a plan which will make sure that the road show would run smoothly. The worse case that I heard was that a friend of mine, who were teaching at other part of Johor were allowed to go home from school because students do the Marhaban Road Show to her house during PnP. huhuhu

As my residential area consists of many streets, almost each street would have their own Marhaban group. They would do the Marhaban marched in their own territory. My school has also conducted the Marhaban road show for a few nights (plus a fewMarhabanopen houses during the days). So the situation was that the school members would bring along their family and marched from a house to another. We did the Marhaban and had a light meal before going to another house. The last house would serve the main course for the night. Children were given motivation to marched along as they were given some Ang Pau from each house that they went, thus the Marhaban was not just for the older generation, but for all.

We filled other’s stomach with food and fill the heart with the praise to Allah and His messenger, Muhammad SAW. What a blessed way to celebrate the happiness and gratitude!